An Overview of the IB Board
International Baccalaureate or the IB, aims to develop curious, knowledgeable, and confident young people. IB is considered a global leader in international education that allows school-aged students to take ownership of their learning. It also assists them to inculcate future-ready skills to grow in a fast-evolving generation.
The IB programs are tailored to give a solid and consistent education framework. They also come with the flexibility to modify the curriculum as per the culture and the context of students.
The IB programs aid the teachers to develop the qualities of resilience, strength, and self-motivation in the students. These students would have the right skills, knowledge, and sense of purpose that is needed to build a good life and make the world a better place to live. Across the world, over 5,000 IB world schools are present in more than 150 countries.
On a global level, the IB works closely with universities just to conduct studies on the skill development, quality assurance, and impact assessment of IB programs. It offers four educational programs for the students of age group three to nineteen. Each of these programs provides the students a competitive edge to gain admission to some of the world’s top universities.
The CBSE or Central Board for Secondary Education is a standardized curriculum that is offered in more than 24 countries across the world. The main objectives of CBSE are to define correct approaches to academic activities for the benefit of providing stress-free, child-centered, high-quality, and integrated education to students. It also aims to store feedback from different stakeholders to analyze the quality of academic activities. Additionally, CBSE targets to adapt, adjust, and transform itself when it comes to achieving academic excellence. This should be accomplished in accordance with specific psychological, professional, and community-based principles.
Some other objectives of CBSE revolve around boosting schools to document the progress of students in a way that is friendly for both the students and the teachers. It continuously proposes plans to achieve quality benchmarks in school education—while keeping in mind that the curriculum remains compatible with national goals.
The primary focus of this curriculum is to find innovative methods for teaching and learning processes, working on the execution of reforms in exam practices, and skill-learning by including job-oriented inputs, and continuously updating the pedagogical skills of the teachers and administrators through the conduction of training programs and workshops.
Advantages & Disadvantages of IB Board
Pros | Cons |
Balanced curriculum | Not widespread in India |
Skill and knowledge-oriented approach to education | Not suitable for college education in India |
Internationally recognized (more credible for admission at foreign universities) | Costly |
Gateway program to some of the top universities in the world |
Pros | Cons |
Trains students for Competitive Exams | Textbook-based answering patterns |
Easily accessible across India | Give importance to rote learning |
Allows instruction in both Hindi and English medium | No focus on research |
Well, it’s a very difficult question to answer as both boards cater to the different requirements of students and parents. Thus, let us compare the two.
IB focuses more on practical and application-based learning with respect to CBSE. IB exams test students’ knowledge & intelligence; however, CBSE exams focus a lot on speed and memory. IB pedagogy focuses on ‘how to learn’ instead of ‘what to learn’ and gives more importance to qualitative assignments in terms of conceptual understanding of the subjects. It makes students ready to study across the world. However, right now, it isn’t that famous in our country, and the schools that do offer it are pretty costly. Hence, you may need to do some more research to find an IB World School that fits your other criteria.
On the other hand, CBSE provides a comprehensive education that is affordable. Also, you have a variety of options in all locations to select from.
Need more individualized advice?
Each child is unique. And, each school is unique. The environment also plays an important role. Thus, how a student will perform in a particular field, can not be solely dependent on the board’s curriculum. Choosing a board is a very important decision for a parent and a decision should be made considering an individual’s preferences, constraints, and a school’s ecosystem.
With the help of this blog, we have certainly smoothed it over for you. For such amazing blogs do visit our website, follow our Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn channels, like, follow our Facebook channel, and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more content like this in the future! From helping students prepare and score better in the areas of standardized testing: SAT, ACT, and AP tests to providing high school academic support requirements: IGCSE, IB Subjects, and AS/A Level classes; ReWiser is with you every step of the way!
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